Effects of virtual reality-based rehabilitation on cognitive function and mood in multiple sclerosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disabling neurological disease that causes cognitive impairment and mental problems that occur in all MS phenotypes but are most common in patients with secondary progressive MS. Various degrees of cognitive impairment and mental health concerns are common among patients with MS (PwMS). Virtual reality (VR)-based rehabilitation is an innovative approach aimed at enhancing cognitive function and mood in PwMS. This study aims to perform a meta-analysis to assess the effects of VR-based rehabilitation on cognitive function and mood in PwMS. METHODS: Using PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), a thorough database search was performed to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the effects of VR on PwMS. Trials published until October 31, 2023, that satisfied our predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria were included. Data were extracted, literature was examined, and the methodological quality of the included trials was assessed. StataSE version 16 was used for the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Our meta-analysis included 461 patients from 10 RCTs. PRIMARY OUTCOMES: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) (weighted mean difference [WMD]=1.93, 95 % confidence interval [CI]=0.51-3.36, P = 0.008, I² = 75.4 %) the Spatial Recall Test (SPART) (WMD=3.57, 95 % CI=1.65-5.50, P < 0.001, I² = 0 %), immediate recall (standard mean difference [SMD]=0.37, 95 % CI=0.10-0.64, P = 0.007, I² = 0 %) and delayed recall ([SMD]=0.30, 95 % CI=0.06-0.54, P = 0.013, I² = 35.4 %) showed improvements in comparison to the control group in terms of global cognitive function immediate recall, delayed recall, and visuospatial abilities. SECONDARY OUTCOMES: Compared to the control group, anxiety improved (standard mean difference [SMD]=0.36, 95 % CI=0.10-0.62, P = 0.007, I² = 43.1 %). However, there were no significant differences in processing speed, attention, working memory or depression. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review provides valuable evidence for improving cognitive function and mood in PwMS through VR-based rehabilitation. In the future, VR-based rehabilitation may be a potential method to treat cognitive function and emotional symptoms of MS. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO; identifier: CRD42023474467.

Feature separation and adversarial training for the patient-independent detection of epileptic seizures.

An epileptic seizure is the external manifestation of abnormal neuronal discharges, which seriously affecting physical health. The pathogenesis of epilepsy is complex, and the types of epileptic seizures are diverse, resulting in significant variation in epileptic seizure data between subjects. If we feed epilepsy data from multiple patients directly into the model for training, it will lead to underfitting of the model. To overcome this problem, we propose a robust epileptic seizure detection model that effectively learns from multiple patients while eliminating the negative impact of the data distribution shift between patients. The model adopts a multi-level temporal-spectral feature extraction network to achieve feature extraction, a feature separation network to separate features into category-related and patient-related components, and an invariant feature extraction network to extract essential feature information related to categories. The proposed model is evaluated on the TUH dataset using leave-one-out cross-validation and achieves an average accuracy of 85.7%. The experimental results show that the proposed model is superior to the related literature and provides a valuable reference for the clinical application of epilepsy detection.

Patient-specific approach using data fusion and adversarial training for epileptic seizure prediction.

Epilepsy is the second common neurological disorder after headache, accurate and reliable prediction of seizures is of great clinical value. Most epileptic seizure prediction methods consider only the EEG signal or extract and classify the features of EEG and ECG signals separately, the improvement of prediction performance from multimodal data is not fully considered. In addition, epilepsy data are time-varying, with differences between each episode in a patient, making it difficult for traditional curve-fitting models to achieve high accuracy and reliability. In order to improve the accuracy and reliability of the prediction system, we propose a novel personalized approach based on data fusion and domain adversarial training to predict epileptic seizures using leave-one-out cross-validation, which achieves an average accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 99.70, 99.76, and 99.61%, respectively, with an average error alarm rate (FAR) of 0.001. Finally, the advantage of this approach is demonstrated by comparison with recent relevant literature. This method will be incorporated into clinical practice to provide personalized reference information for epileptic seizure prediction.

The Efficacy of Scouting Technology in Pedicle Screw Placement in the Patients With Degenerative Scoliosis.

Objective: To investigate the curative effect of ball tip technology in pedicle screw placement in the patients with degenerative scoliosis (DS), as compared to traditional freehand technique. Methods: A total of 90 patients with degenerative scoliosis who were admitted to Affiliated Hospital of Hebei Engineering University from October 2019 to October 2021 were selected as the objects in this prospective study. They were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group with 45 cases in each. The clinical indications, the accuracy of pedicle screw placement, the occurrence of surgical complications, the measurement of spinal and pelvic parameters, the recovery of spinal function and pain degree were recorded and compared within the two groups. Results: After treatment, the operation time, intraoperative blood loss, total number of screws, and time of screwing were compared between the two groups, and the difference was not significant (P > .05). However, the bedding time and the hospital stay were shorter in the experimental group than the control group with difference (P < .05). There was no significant difference in clinical standards and poor implantation in the Gertzbein-Robbins A-E classification between the two groups (P > .05). While the number of perfect placement of screws in the experimental group was higher (P < .05). Before treatment, the Cobbs angle and pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis (PI-LL) levels of the two groups were comparable (P > .05); after treatment, the Cobbs angle and PI-LL levels of the two groups were lower than those before treatment, and the difference was significant (P < .05). There was no significant difference in Cobbs angle and PI-LL levels between groups (P > .05). Before treatment, the JOA and DOI scores of the two groups were comparable (P > .05); after treatment, the JOA and DOI scores of the two groups were improved (P < .05); the improvement of JOA and DOI scores of the experimental group were better than those in the control group (P < .05). Before treatment, there was no significant difference in the pain degree between the two groups (P > .05); after treatment, the pain of the two groups was improved compared with that before treatment, and the pain degree of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group (P < .05). The incidence of postoperative complications in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group, but there was no significant difference in the total incidence of postoperative complications between the two groups (P > .05). Conclusion: The scouting technique-assisted screw placement can effectively improve the spinal function of patients with degenerative scoliosis, with obvious curative effect and high safety.

[Epilepsy detection and analysis method for specific patient based on data augmentation and deep learning].

In recent years, epileptic seizure detection based on electroencephalogram (EEG) has attracted the widespread attention of the academic. However, it is difficult to collect data from epileptic seizure, and it is easy to cause over fitting phenomenon under the condition of few training data. In order to solve this problem, this paper took the CHB-MIT epilepsy EEG dataset from Boston Children's Hospital as the research object, and applied wavelet transform for data augmentation by setting different wavelet transform scale factors. In addition, by combining deep learning, ensemble learning, transfer learning and other methods, an epilepsy detection method with high accuracy for specific epilepsy patients was proposed under the condition of insufficient learning samples. In test, the wavelet transform scale factors 2, 4 and 8 were set for experimental comparison and verification. When the wavelet scale factor was 8, the average accuracy, average sensitivity and average specificity was 95.47%, 93.89% and 96.48%, respectively. Through comparative experiments with recent relevant literatures, the advantages of the proposed method were verified. Our results might provide reference for the clinical application of epilepsy detection.

Social cognition in multiple sclerosis and its subtypes: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disease that disrupts several social cognitive abilities, including the theory of mind (ToM) and facial emotion recognition (FER). It is unclear how specific ToM subcomponents, including cognitive and affective ToM, are affected in patients with MS and the social cognitive abilities in MS subtypes. METHODS: A search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases was conducted until June 2020. Effect sizes were calculated using Hedges g with a random-effects model. RESULTS: A total of 45 studies were included. Relative to health controls (HCs), patients with MS and its subtypes (including relapsing-remitting MS [RRMS] and progressive MS) exhibited impairments in ToM (g = -0.77, g = -0.70, g = -0.75, respectively), cognitive ToM (g = -0.72, g = -0.83, g = -0.73, respectively), affective ToM (g = -0.84, g = -0.63, g = -0. 50, respectively), and FER (g = -0.62, g = -0.53, g = -1.07, respectively). In addition, there was no difference between progressive primary MS and secondary progressive MS in overall ToM, cognitive ToM, affective ToM, and FER. Compared to patients with RRMS, patients with progressive MS showed no difference in overall ToM, cognitive ToM, and affective ToM but had more serious defects in FER (g = -0.57). CONCLUSIONS: These quantitative results indicate that patients with MS and its subtypes have a differential impairment of the core aspects of social cognitive processing (including ToM and FER), which may help develop the structured social cognitive interventions in MS.

Empathy and Theory of Mind in Multiple Sclerosis: A Meta-Analysis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Studies have shown that MS disrupts several social cognitive abilities [including empathy and theory of mind (ToM)]. Overall ToM deficits in MS are well documented, but how the specific ToM subcomponents and empathic capacity are affected remains unclear. For this meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase from inception to July 2020. Effect sizes were calculated using Hedges g with a random-effects model. Thirty-three studies were included. Relative to healthy controls (HCs), patients with MS were moderately impaired in overall empathy (g = -0.67), overall ToM (g = -74), cognitive ToM (g = -0.72), and the overlapping domains of cognitive empathy/affective ToM (g = -0.79); no group differences were identified for affective empathy (g = -0.19). Compared with HCs, patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and progressive MS were impaired in overall empathy, overall ToM, cognitive ToM, and cognitive empathy/affective ToM, without significant RRMS-progressive MS differences in impairment degree. We conducted the first meta-analytic review investigating the empathy and ToM functioning patterns in patients with MS and examined the overlapping and distinct subcomponents of these constructs. The findings suggest differential impairment of the core aspects of social cognitive processing in patients with MS, which may importantly inform the development of structured social cognitive MS interventions.

Retinal nerve fiber layer changes in migraine: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Migraine is one of the most common disabling diseases in the world. Its recurrent attacks may lead to abnormalities in the structure of the brain and retina. An increasing number of studies have investigated retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness alterations in migraine by the optical coherence tomography (OCT); however, no consensus has yet reached. METHOD: We searched Pubmed, Embase, and Web of Science databases to identify studies that investigated RNFL thickness in migraine by OCT measurement and performed a meta-analysis of eligible studies. RESULTS: Twenty-six studies were included in the meta-analysis, comprising 1530 migraine patients and 1105 healthy controls. The mean RNFL thickness was thinner in the migraine group compared to the control group (SMD =- 0.53). In the subgroup analyses, RNFL thickness were decreased most significantly in the superior (SMD = - 0.71) and inferior (SMD = - 0.63) quadrants among all quadrants. Migraine with aura (SMD = - 0.91) showed a greater effect size of RNFL thickness reduction than migraine without aura (SMD =- 0.47). Spectral-domain OCT (SMD = - 0.55) seems more sensitive to detect RNFL thickness reduction than time-domain OCT (SMD = - 0.44). In addition, age, sex, disease duration, attack frequency, and intraocular pressure were not significantly associated with RNFL thickness. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from our comprehensive meta-analysis with large datasets strengthen the clinical evidence of the RNFL thickness reduction in migraine. RNFL thickness via spectral-domain OCT measurement demonstrates the potential role in differentiating patients with migraine, especially migraine with aura, from healthy controls.

Theory of mind in adults with traumatic brain injury: A meta-analysis.

Studies of abnormal theory of mind (ToM) performance in adult patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have reported inconsistent results. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to characterize ToM performance in adult patients with TBI. Random-effects models were employed to estimate the overall effect size and the differential effect sizes across different ToM aspects. Based on a sample of 28 studies (1031 patients and 865 healthy controls), the meta-analytic findings revealed that ToM was significantly impaired in adult patients with TBI compared to healthy controls (g = -1.13). Besides, patients with TBI showed significant impairments in individual ToM tasks, as well as for different stimulus modes and contents involved in these ToM tasks. A meta-regression indicated a positive association between ToM performance and Glasgow Coma Scale score. The results of the current meta-analysis suggest that the performance in ToM tasks may be a good predictor of functional outcomes in adults with TBI, which is important for the identification of targets for cognitive interventions and the development of useful training intervention programs.

Retinal nerve fiber layer changes in migraine: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Migraine is a common neurological disease, which seriously affects the quality of life and daily activities of patients. Although migraine is a transient phenomenon of cerebral vasoconstriction, it is well documented that recurrent attacks of migraine may lead to abnormalities in retinal structure. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a sensitive method to detect subtle damage in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). There have been many studies investigating the difference in RNFL thickness with optical coherence tomography (OCT) between migraine patients and healthy controls. However, the results were not consistent. Our purpose is to perform a meta-analysis to investigate RNFL alterations in migraine. METHODS: We will search PubMed, Embase, Web of science for studies assessing the differences in RNFL measured by OCT between patients with migraine and healthy controls. Case-control studies published in English will be included. Two reviewers will independently screen eligible articles, extract data, and assess quality. This meta-analysis will synthesize selected research data and compare the difference in RNFL thickness between patients with migraine and healthy controls. We will use Stata 15 in this meta-analysis. I statistics will be used to assess heterogeneity. If I ≤ 50%, the data are synthesized will use a fixed effect model. Otherwise, a random effect model will be performed. Publication bias will be determined by the Egger test. The methodological quality of all included studies will be evaluated by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). We will perform subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and meta-regression analysis to test the robustness of the results. RESULTS: We will obtain quantitative results regarding the difference in RNFL thickness between migraine patients and healthy controls. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide a high-quality synthesis of existing evidence and provide a basis for assessing the effect of migraine on the thickness of RNFL. REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY 202060033.

Social cognition in multiple sclerosis and its subtypes: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and degenerative neurological disorder of the central nervous system. Cognitive impairment is frequent in MS patients, which not only includes deficits in abilities assessed by traditional neuropsychological batteries, but also often features impairments in social cognition (including theory of mind and facial emotion recognition). Recently, numerous studies have assessed social cognition performance in MS. However, there have been inconsistent findings. Besides, it is not clear how social cognitive abilities are affected in MS subtypes. The aim of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis to characterize social cognition performance in MS and its subtypes (clinically isolated syndrome, relapsing-remitting MS, progressive primary MS, and secondary progressive MS). METHODS: Literature sources will be divided into 2 sections: electronic sources and manual sources. A systematic literature search will be performed for eligible studies published up to June 10, 2020 in 3 international databases (Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science). In addition, manual sources will be searched, such as the references of all included studies. Two researchers will independently conduct the work such as article retrieval, screening, quality evaluation, data collection. Meta-analysis will be conducted using Stata 15.0 software. RESULTS: The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis will provide a high-quality synthesis from existing evidence for social cognition performance in MS and its subtypes. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY202070028.

Empathy and theory of mind in multiple sclerosis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Recently, numerous studies have shown that MS disrupts a number of social cognitive abilities, including empathy, theory of mind (ToM), and facial emotion recognition. In contrast to well-documented deficits in the core social cognitive domains of ToM and facial emotion recognition, it is not clear the broad and specific subcomponents of empathy processing affected. In addition, the specific subcomponents of ToM affected in MS are also unclear. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to characterize the performance of empathy and ToM in MS. METHODS: A systematic literature search will be performed for eligible studies published up to July 1st, 2020 in 3 international databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase). The work such as article retrieval, screen, quality evaluation, data collection will be conducted by 2 independent researchers. Meta-analysis will be performed using Stata 15.0 software. RESULTS: The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis will provide a high-quality synthesis from existing evidence for the performance of empathy and ToM in MS. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY202070029.

Altered local connectivity in chronic pain: A voxel-wise meta-analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.

BACKGROUND: A number of studies have used regional homogeneity (ReHo) to depict local functional connectivity in chronic pain (CP). However, the findings from these studies were mixed and inconsistent. METHODS: A computerized literature search will be performed in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang, and SinoMed databases until June 15, 2019 and updated on March 20, 2020. This protocol will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). The Seed-based d Mapping with Permutation of Subject Images (SDM-PSI) software will be used for this voxel-wise meta-analysis. RESULTS: This meta-analysis will identify the most consistent ReHo alterations in CP. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this will be the first voxel-wise meta-analysis that integrates ReHo findings in CP. This meta-analysis will offer the quantitative evidence of ReHo alterations that characterize brain local functional connectivity of CP. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019148523.

Facial emotion recognition in adult with traumatic brain injury: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) refers to head injuries that disrupt normal function of the brain. TBI commonly lead to a wide range of potential psychosocial functional deficits. Although psychosocial function after TBI is influenced by many factors, more and more evidence shows that social cognitive skills are critical contributors. Facial emotion recognition, one of the higher-level skills of social cognition, is the ability to perceive and recognize emotional states of others based on their facial expressions. Numerous studies have assessed facial emotion recognition performance in adult patients with TBI. However, there have been inconsistent findings. The aim of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis to characterize facial emotion recognition in adult patients with TBI. METHODS: A systematic literature search will be performed for eligible studies published up to March 19, 2020 in three international databases (PubMed, Web of Science and Embase). The work such as article retrieval, screening, quality evaluation, data collection will be conducted by two independent researchers. Meta-analysis will be conducted using Stata 15.0 software. RESULTS: This meta-analysis will provide a high-quality synthesis from existing evidence for facial emotion recognition in adult patients with TBI, and analyze the facial emotion recognition performance in different aspects (i.e., recognition of negative emotions or positive emotions or any specific basic emotion). CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis will provide evidence of facial emotion recognition performance in adult patients with TBI. INPLASY REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY202050109.

A clinical survey of pain in Parkinson's disease in Eastern China.

BACKGROUND: This is a case-control study to investigate the prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors of pain in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: A total of 200 PD patients from eastern China were enrolled in our study. Accordingly, 200 healthy elderly adults were recruited as controls. The characteristics of pain were collected by using the Visual Analog Scale, Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), SF-36 Bodily Pain Scale, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, Hoehn-Yahr Scale (H-Y), Hamilton Depression Scale, and Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs. RESULTS: Of the 200 PD patients, pain was complained by 106 patients (53%). According to the SF-36 Bodily Pain Scale, pain morbidity in PD patients was significantly higher than in the control group. The average pain during last 24 h measured by the BPI was 2.67. About 76% of PD patients were found to have one pain type, 21.7% were having two pain types, and 1.9% had three pain types. Further, 69.8% of these patients were presented with musculoskeletal pain, 4.7% with dystonic pain, 22.6% with radicular-neuropathic pain, 20.8% with central neuropathic pain, and 9.4% with akathisia pain. The onset age and depression were the most significant predictors of pain in PD patients (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant association between pain and gender, age, disease duration, or severity of the disease. Only 5.7% of PD patients with pain received treatment in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Pain is frequent and disabling, independent of demographic and clinical variables, and is significantly more common in PD patients.

Screen-printed microfluidic dielectrophoresis chip for cell separation.

Dielectrophoresis (DEP), the induced motion of polarizable particles in a non-uniform electric field, has been proven as a perfect candidate to transport, accumulate, separate and characterize micro-/nano-scale bioparticles in microfluidic systems. However, conventional fabrication technologies are complex, time-consuming and relatively expensive, leading to low throughput of the DEP-based systems. In this paper, we report a novel microfluidic alternating current DEP (AC-DEP) chip fabricated via inexpensive screen printing method. The innovation of our work consists in the extreme simplicity of the fabrication procedure, i.e., the main components, including electrodes and channels, were constructed by layer-by-layer screen printing process, which is especially suitable for high-throughput mass production. Carbon paste, instead of metals, was used to print interdigitated electrodes with semi-3D structure which not only reduces dramatically the chip cost but also increases particle trapping efficiency. To test the chip performance, yeast cells, as model cells, were trapped and separated from a mixed suspension with PS microspheres. Our results show that high capture rate and separation efficiency can be achieved under optimized conditions.

Intrinsic fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer based on arc discharge and single-mode fiber.

We propose a simple intrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) based on single-mode fiber, where a thin film is formed by arc discharge to serve as one mirror of the FPI cavity. The temperature and refractive-index (RI) characteristics of the proposed device are investigated. Experimental results show that the device can provide temperature-independent measurement of RI with a fringe-contrast sensitivity of ~72.59 dB/RIU (RI units). Meanwhile, it can also be used as a temperature sensor with a wavelength sensitivity of ~8 pm/°C. Therefore, the potential simultaneous measurement of RI and temperature could be realized by detecting the variations of fringe contrast and wavelength, respectively.

[Study on the level of tobacco-generated smoke in several restautants and bars in Beijing, China].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current smoking regulations and their impacts on the environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) levels inside restaurants and bars in Beijing. METHODS: Telephone survey was used to investigate the smoking regulations. TSI Sidepak AM510 was used to measure the level of fine particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) in restaurants and bars. Analysis of variance and non-parametric rank tests were used to examine the association between indoor and outdoor PM2.5 levels and (1) smoking regulations; and (2) types of restaurants and bars. RESULTS: Of the 305 restaurants and bars surveyed, 27.9% had complete or partial smoking prohibiting rules. The average indoor PM2.5, level of the 92 restaurants and bars was 253.08 microg/m3 , 102.37% higher than the outdoor level. The average indoor and outdoor PM2.5 levels in the restaurants and bars with smoking ban regulations were 93.10 microg/m3 and 110.33 microg/m3 whole 289.34 microg/m3 and 128.40 microg/m3 in those without, respectively. The average indoor and outdoor PM2.5 levels of bars were 413.46 microg/m3 and 190.62 microg/m3, respectively, while in the western fast-food restaurants, they were 83.86 microg/m3 and 104.77 microg/m3, respectively. The outdoor PM2.5 levels were higher than the indoor levels in different classes of restaurants and bars. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between PM2.5 levels and the number of smokers per cube meters (r = 0.47, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Smoking regulations could effectively reduce the ETS level in restaurants and bars.

Hybrid simulation of seismic responses of semi - rigidly jointed steel frames

This paper presents the results from monotonic loading tests and pseuso-dynamic tests on semi-rigidly jointed steel frames. There are two types of specimen used as semi-rigid connections: split-tee type and angle type. In the pseudo-dynamic tests, the applicability of sub-structuring techniques to the earthquake response simulation on semi-rigidly jointed 2-story steel frames is demonstrated and the influence of pinching effects in the restoring force characteristics on the global response of semi-rigidly jointed steel frames is discussed (AU)